What Is Your Take on Pirate Radio Free Radio

[Neil E.]

dbdigital,

Pardon me for not picking up that you were referring to LICENSED LPAM. Neither your post or the few before it mentioned anything other than pulled out of a hat wattages to put on the wish list for these stations so I erred I suppose.

I have lived the "gentlemans' voluntary frequency coordination" fiasco on the ham bands regarding 2 meter repeater "co-ordination". The big fish got the worms and the rest of us got inverted tertiaries. Nothing at all fair or gentlemanly involved from my experience. I know voluntary sharing of radio spectrum and it doesn't work unless you are a big fish already in the pond. Lest you doubt me, who controls the airwaves and has licenses to broadcast now?

Neil

 

[Aljr]

Depends on what you define as a "pirate". I've heard hams refer to Latin American mil-coms as pirates when they turn up on 80 and 40 meters HF. They're obviously not,but to these self appointed keepers of the airwaves they are.

To me a pirate is someone who actually broadcasts programming w/o a license.

I could care less about the Pirates on SW/HF. Most of them seem to be doing it for giggles and ironically seem to be the most aware about where and when they transmit.

On FM,crappy import transmitters are my main complaint in an already crowded spectrum. Throwing spurs up and down spectrum isn't a good way to make friends. Solid clean FCC approved transmitters and I'm cool w/ 5 plus watt community stations

AM intrigues me as a possibility for licensed low power daytime community broadcasting. Put 'em under the same specs as TIS stations in regards to power/antenna and let them go sunrise to sunset. Heck they could double up. Run AM in the day,FM at night.

 

[WCWalker]

Aljr. I trust that you mean unlicensed stations not in compliance with Part 15 regulations are pirates. Unfortunately some NAB people like to believe that even Part 15 broadcast operations are also pirates. Sadly, many of their own NAB stations are actually pirates because they don't adhere to FCC regulations. The most notorious offenders seem to be the stations that have inadequate tower lighting or run their transmitters at much higher power than they actually are licensed for.

 

[XRQKFM]

On FM,crappy import transmitters are my main complaint in an already crowded spectrum. Throwing spurs up and down spectrum isn't a good way to make friends. Solid clean FCC approved transmitters and I'm cool w/ 5 plus watt community stations

I have herd legal FM broadcasters throw spurs up and down the dial too, because those cheap scates don't bother to maintain their transmitters, a 1000 watt legal licensed transmitter spitting out spurs and harmonics are far more dangerous to public safety than a 25 milliwatt Ramsey. On the other hand, the imported Broadcast Warehouse 1 watt module exceeds FCC standards and is very clean, the imported EDM is also spotless when it comes to spurs and harmonics. with the exception of those cheap Chinese transmitters the FCC and NAB have forced upon us, with all the fines put on guys like LP Ryan. most of the import exciters are much better quality than just five years ago.

Steve
XRQK FM

 

[Aljr]

Aljr. I trust that you mean unlicensed stations not in compliance with Part 15 regulations are pirates.

Yep.

Why anyone would hassle someone because their 100 mW signal might steal away a couple of listeners is beyond me. You're looking at an effective armchair listening range of what? A 1/4 mile at most? Leave them alone.

If I were a station manager of bottom feeder X100,I'd have a lot more on my mind than a guy over in the next block running a Part 15 station.

BTW,how did that Nicaragua thing work out Bill?

 

[WCWalker]

Aljr. Concerning Nicaragua. You might have me confused with someone else. To date I have not been involved with any projects outside of either the USA or Canada. I have family and friends that spend time in central America but I have never visited.

 

[Aljr]

Aljr. Concerning Nicaragua. You might have me confused with someone else. To date I have not been involved with any projects outside of either the USA or Canada. I have family and friends that spend time in central America but I have never visited.

I was just kidding. Back in the 1850's there was American freebooter/pirate type by the name of William Walker who took over Nicaragua with a small army of mercenaries and outlaws.

As this is a Pirate sub-board I thought that might be where the handle came from?

 

[WCWalker]

I'm afraid I don't recall too much history concerning Central or South America. The last time I learned about that was in the sixth and seventh grades! Believe it or not I use my real name.

 

[DJboutit3]

Something needs to be done for sure pirates should be allowed to be on the air right now what the FCC is does is just a dam shame

Sign Free Radio Petition http://www.petitiononline.com/SFRadio/petition.html
Radio Pirates Forum http://radiopirates.18.forumer.com/

 

[Neil E.]

Something needs to be done for sure pirates should be allowed to be on the air right now what the FCC is does is just a dam shame

If the FCC licensing process which prevents interference and RF spectrum chaos is what you mean by "a dam shame" then I have to disagree. Imagine if there were no traffic laws, signs, and signals and the roads were filled with "pirate" drivers with no demonstrated competence.

Also, let's watch the words. If the FCC allows pirates then they wouldn't be pirates would they? How do you propose the FCC handle this?

I don't dispute that the little guys who want to community cast are getting a short deal and it does appear that the FCC is subject to special interests. Local low power licensed stations serving a radius of say ten miles is a good idea but right now it is not to be. In my location, one public radio station has gobbled up much of the available FM frequencies with translators and are not only overlapping with signal coverage they are simulcasting for many hours a day on AM and duplicating programming available on another FM station here (NPR). This triplication of programming is a total waste of spectrum. Here's a list of the frequencies they use for the same programming:

* 89.5 FM W208AT, Coshocton, Ohio
* 91.1 FM WOSE-FM, Coshocton, Ohio
* 91.1 FM WOSB-FM, Marion, Ohio
* 91.5 FM WOSP-FM, Portsmouth, Ohio
* 91.7 FM WOSV-FM, Mansfield, Ohio


If the FCC is not performing to your satisfaction about all you can do is complain to their boss (Congress).

Neil

 

[Aljr]

Something needs to be done for sure pirates should be allowed to be on the air right now what the FCC is does is just a dam shame

If the FCC licensing process which prevents interference and RF spectrum chaos is what you mean by "a dam shame" then I have to disagree. Imagine if there were no traffic laws, signs, and signals and the roads were filled with "pirate" drivers with no demonstrated competence.

In my location, one public radio station has gobbled up much of the available FM frequencies with translators and are not only overlapping with signal coverage they are simulcasting for many hours a day on AM and duplicating programming available on another FM station here (NPR).


If the FCC is not performing to your satisfaction about all you can do is complain to their boss (Congress).

Neil

Nice one Neil,lol. I had a great-uncle who was Deputy Sheriff in KY. from the 40's to the 60's. Late in his career he pulled over an old man on I-64 for going under the 40 MPH minimum speed limit. When Uncle Boone asked the old guy for his license the old guy goes "License!?! When the the Hell did they start that sh!t!

You're dead on about Public Radio. Who do you think was really behind binding the hands of LPFM when it got the FCC stamp of approval in the late 90's.

I live outside of Morehead KY. I can receive more Ohio public radio stations than I can the ones from this state. There is nearly one every adjacent frequency on the low end of the band.